Tullow well finds minor gas shows in Ethiopia

5/23/2014

Tullow well finds minor gas shows in Ethiopia

LONDON -- Tullow Oil has announced that the Shimela-1 well encountered water bearing reservoirs. Shimela-1 in the South Omo Block, onshore Ethiopia, was drilled to test a prospect in a north-western sub-basin of the vast Chew Bahir basin.

The frontier wildcat well encountered lacustrine and volcanic rocks including almost 100 m of net sandstone reservoir within siltstones and claystones. Trace thermogenic gas shows were recorded at 1,900 m.

The Exalo 205 rig drilled Shimela-1 to a final depth of 1,940 m. The rig will now be moved to drill the Gardim-1 wildcat exploration well in a completely separate sub-basin, in the south-eastern corner of the Chew Bahir basin.

Angus McCoss, Tullow’s Exploration Director, said,“Although the Shimela well only found traces of thermogenic gas, it has provided key data to continue to build our understanding of the north-western part of the Chew Bahir basin. The prospectivity at the Gardim-1 well, which is targeting an independent petroleum system in a separate south-eastern sub-basin, is not affected by this result.”

And Keith Hill, President and CEO of Africa Oil, commented, "While we are disappointed that this well discovered only minor gas shows, we still believe there is significant potential in the Ethiopian portion of the rift and will continue efforts to explore not only the remainder of this block but also the Rift Basin Area where oil seeps and source rocks in outcrop demonstrate a working petroleum system."